VacationSelector
The Fisherman's Bastion, Budapest
BudapestThe Fisherman's Bastion
The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco
San FranciscoThe Golden Gate Bridge

Photos: Budapest by Perituss, CC0; San Francisco by Elijah Cobb, Pexels License.

Budapest or San Francisco?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose Budapest for

  • wellness
  • prices
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Budapest’s own page.

Choose San Francisco for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • food and drink
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on San Francisco’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Budapest and San Francisco are level on 25.
Food & drink. Budapest 63, San Francisco 82: San Francisco leads by 19 points.
Culture & sights. Budapest 80, San Francisco 68: Budapest leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. Budapest 78, San Francisco 58: Budapest leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Budapest 58, San Francisco 80: San Francisco leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Budapest 68, San Francisco 72: San Francisco leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Budapest 62, San Francisco 66: San Francisco leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Budapest 78, San Francisco 70: Budapest leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Budapest 55, San Francisco 58: San Francisco leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Budapest 62, San Francisco 14: Budapest leads by 48 points.
Live music & performing arts. Budapest and San Francisco are level on 76.
Wellness & relaxation. Budapest 98, San Francisco 42: Budapest leads by 56 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Budapest and San Francisco.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Budapest
Best match
67match

Wins on wellness and prices with your weighting.

San Francisco
59match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and food and drink with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Budapest in July

27 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
75 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

San Francisco in July

22 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
13 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
BudapestSan Francisco

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Budapest: 1991-2020 normals, Budapest Met Center (2.1 km from centre). San Francisco: 1981-2010 normals, Alameda Naval Air Station (9.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBudapestSan Francisco
Official languageHungarian-
CurrencyForint (HUF)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation117 m16 m
Main airportBudapest Liszt Ferenc International Airport (BUD)18 km from centre157 non-stop destinationsSan Francisco International Airport (SFO)18 km from centre142 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBudapestSan Francisco
City population1,675,777873,965
People per km²3,1911,455
Museums within 10 km8151
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Budapest or San Francisco somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.